The present invention relates to biometric authorization and registration systems and methods.
Everyday, thousands of authorization systems and devices attempt to determine whether a particular individual seeking access to a consumer service, a building, or operation of a device should be granted such access. Password-based authorization systems are the most prevalent, and are ubiquitously used to provide xe2x80x9csecuredxe2x80x9d access to everything from bank accounts, to computer systems, to buildings. Password-based authorization systems suffer, however, from at least two common problems. First, the authorized user may forget his password, and thus not be able to access whatever he has been given the right to access. More problematically, unauthorized users may fraudulently obtain an authorized user""s password information, and gain access to the supposedly secured service, space, or device.
Recognizing these and other flaws in the password-based access systems utilized today, those in the security field have turned to biometrics (the use of an individual""s inherent physical or biological characteristics for identification purposes). Biometric-based security systems have thus been proposed for providing secured access to everything from computer systems to buildings. Such systems have implemented, among others, face recognition, speech recognition, and fingerprint analysis techniques.
Of particular concern today is the unauthorized use of firearms. One seems to read articles on a regular basis of stolen guns being utilized to commit crimes or young children accidentally injuring themselves or a friend with their parent""s firearm. Biometric authorization systems have been proposed to solve this problem as well. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,545 to Shaw describes at a conceptual level a biometric authorization system for a handgun.
In the Shaw patent, an authorized individual""s fingerprint or palm print information is stored in a recognition circuit contained in the handgun. If a would-be user""s finger or palm print matches the prints stored in the recognition circuit, the firearm may be used. The Shaw system, however, will not provide acceptable xe2x80x9creal-worldxe2x80x9d results. This is because the method chosen (attempting to match a stored print with that of a would-be user) is inadequate for the task of discriminating between the authorized user of the firearm and unauthorized users of the firearm.
Individuals may have biometric features that are common in many respects. Thus, relying on a one-to-one matching algorithm like Shaw""s will almost certainly result in unauthorized individuals mistakenly being granted access to the firearm. Simply put, it would be sheer luck if the information that allows for the recognition of the desired individual is also the information that is most useful in discriminating against unauthorized users. This is because Shaw gathers and uses no information whatever about prints from anyone else.
Another authorization system for a handgun is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,819 to Mayhak et al. The Mayhak system senses the grip pattern of a user by using a pressure-sensitive unit in the handle of the handgun, and uses a trained neural network to attempt to recognize an authorized user""s grip pattern in order to grant access to the gun.
The Mayak system also has many disadvantages. Chief among these disadvantages is that it does not use a biometric authorization system (a system that detects an individual""s inherent biological or physical characteristics), but rather attempts to detect the user""s grip pattern. A user""s grip pattern may change demonstrably from the time the user purchases the gun to the time that he attempts to use the gun. For example, an authorized user who attempts to use his gun in a threatening situation will in all likelihood produce a different grip pattern than the grip patterns he produced when purchasing the gun. Moreover, because the sensor in Mayhak does not detect inherent biometric features, the system will also likely suffer an unacceptable amount of false-positives (i.e., instances where the system grants unauthorized users access to the gun). This is because behavior is much more changeable than physical characteristics.
What is needed is a biometric authorization system in a firearm that can accurately and reliably authorize use of the firearm by the authorized user, while also accurately and reliably preventing the unauthorized use of the firearm. To solve this problem, the present invention utilizes a training algorithm that takes into account biometric information of not only the authorized user, but also those of a large number of unauthorized users. Such biometric information is necessary to train one or more discriminants and thresholds for such discriminant(s) that will allow the biometric authorization system to accurately and reliably discriminate between the authorized user and unauthorized users. Such a training system and method can also be utilized in biometric authorization systems in systems and devices other than firearms.
What is also needed is a system and method for uniquely registering firearms with authorized users. The present invention solves these, and many other problems.
In a preferred embodiment of the system of the present invention, the system preferably comprises a firearm that includes a biometric authorization system, a plurality of training computers, and a server. The server and the training computer interact to train the biometric authorization system in the firearm to accurately and reliably discriminate between the authorized user and unauthorized users. The server utilizes a training algorithm that takes into account biometric information of not only the authorized user of firearm, but also those of a large number of unauthorized users. Such biometric information is utilized to compute one or more discriminants and thresholds for such discriminant(s), which are then transmitted to the biometric authorization system in the firearm. If the user is allowed to operate the firearm a predetermined percentage of the time, the discriminant thresholds are fixed. If not, the server adjusts the thresholds, and the process is repeated. In another aspect of the present invention, the system may be utilized to uniquely register the firearm with the authorized user. Similar training algorithms are also disclosed for training biometric authorization systems in devices other than firearms.